World Domination, Part 4 of 5: china/divide

Frequent readers of this site (or ChinaSMACK or CNReviews) may be aware that I am slowly attempting to take over the planet via writing on China blogs. Today, I inch one step closer to eventual (and inevitable) dominion over all with the announcement of a new China group blog: china/divide.

china/divide is a group analysis and commentary blog that currently features Stan Abrams (of China Hearsay), Kai Pan (of CNReviews), and me. It will also — like every site I write for — feature original translations.

Why another China blog? My friends, you have got the question all wrong. This is not another China blog, this is the China blog, and the fun part is, we want you to come along for the ride. We want to pool the talent of the China blogosphere to create a one-stop site for anyone who is looking to try to bridge the gap — the divide, if you will — between China and the West (see what I did there?).

muhahahahSo if you write a great blog on China, expect to be hearing from us once the site gets built up a little bit, because we want you on the team. If you don’t, but you’ve always wanted to, get in touch with one (or all) of us and let us know. We want you on the team, too. Having read my history, I know that world domination is only fun when you do it with the right people, so come join us, and together we can rule the galaxy as father and son!

Whoops, got sidetracked there.

Anyway, please add the site to your bookmarks and RSS readers, and check back frequently because we’ll be updating it daily. Also pass it on to your friends and readers via your own blogs, Twitter, carrier pigeon, etc., and we will be very grateful. There’s going to be some great stuff on there, so be excited. Also, feel free to add the china/divide Twitter, which will announce all new posts like some kind of robotic herald.

(And read it on the real internet, not an RSS reader. Kai has put a ton of time into the design and there’s some really cool stuff in there that will make itself known once we have a few more posts under our belt)

What does this mean for ChinaGeeks?

In short, nothing. This blog will continue to run as usual, and hopefully you won’t even notice the difference. I may occasionally point you in the direction of especially good china/divide pieces, but the two sites remain separate and will have different content. ChinaGeeks continues to grow in terms of traffic and visibility and will be here, I hope, for many years to come.

The ChinaGeeks Twitter will probably also announce my pieces on china/divide just as it announces my translations on CNReviews and ChinaSMACK.

As for the next, and possibly final part of my plan for world domination? That, my friends, you’ll just have to wait and see.

0 thoughts on “World Domination, Part 4 of 5: china/divide”

At least as far as what I’m writing, it will be pretty similar content — not that I will be covering the same things, but the same sorts of things. What gives china/divide an edge is that it (unlike this) is a real group blog, with three full-time editors and, in all likelihood, many more writers as time goes by.

Today’s post was just an intro, but if you add it to your bookmarks and RSS and check it over the next few weeks, you’ll get a good idea of the kind of stuff that’s going to go down there.

I’m a little worried about the premise in the first post over at china / divide , namely that extremes are bad and we should all meet somewhere in the middle. There’s a danger in that way of thinking of always condensing complex issues into “well, everyone’s got a point” or “at least what I’m saying isn’t as extreme as so and so” without really examining the core interests involved. And, of course, sometimes the extreme ones are right. Ideas should be taken as ideas, not as points on some spectrum.

What I’d like is not just dialogue, but constructive, polite debate. It needn’t always be along China critic / apologist lines. There are tons of other angles people can come at the country (different development models, different ideas of history, etc.).

Anyway, good luck with it! I’m looking forward to seeing how it shapes up!

@ OTR: Yeah, it isn’t meant to be “everyone meet in the middle” so much as it is “let’s challenge these extremist positions”, but only in the broad sense. I think we can probably all agree that “China is evil” is not one of the extreme positions that is “right”, nor is “the West is evil and China is perfect”. Those are the extremes Stan was talking about trying to challenge.

But yeah, keep an eye on it, we’ve got some great stuff lined up right away, I think.